Marper - sorry I don't have a working system at the moment to work this through, and as I say, networking on Linux is not my comfort zone!

However, I can say that you definitely appear to have a significant network problem from these stats... you are getting less than 5Mbit/s with one large file, so lots of small files don't stand a chance. Given this was a simple file copy, the LMCE doesn't seem to be implicated in any way. It could still be the speed of your systems, but very unlikely as the data rate is SO low, and as totallymaxed pointed out, these processes (booting) are not particularly CPU bound.

Another point is that your file transfer is TCP, but the boot process is UDP, so it is unlikely to be TCP congestion control issues, which eliminates the network stack, leaving us with the NIC drivers and the network itself.

The next "high value" test you should do is bypass the switching and network cables with the cross-over cable direct from NIC-to-NIC (core to MD). They are only a few bucks from your computer store. Do that and try the boot again.... we can go from there...

If that's what you want to do, but that wasn't the next suggestion I made. If there is a problem with the switch/speed/duplex/NIC drivers then you will have wasted your money on 2 more NICs, plus you will not be any closer to identifying whether it is the driver/configuration or the external network - so you will need to get the cross over cable anyway. Will leave it to you now...

NIC's for the MD's are hard to find. They must have internal support (BIOS extensions) for PXE boot. Only a few do. If your hardware is known to work for other people then its either defective hardware (which does happen) or some configuration fault.

If you can run ifconfig on the core and the MD and post the results so we can see how it thinks its configured that would help.

Also make sure you have enough memory in the MD. 512 MB is what you need. And set the video for no more that 128 if you are using integrated graphics. The last time I ran into this type of problem is was a memory issue. Especially on MD's since they swap to the core and use the same pipe as for the content.

There's nothing obviously wrong in those stats. The core does seem to be transmitting a lot more data than the MD is receiving, and receiving a fair amount as well, but that in itself doesn't highlight much without knowing more about what else is on the LAN.

I will try asking one more time before giving up - have you got the cross over cable? This is a 5min test costing a couple of bucks and will immediately tell you if the issue is on your network or in the PCs.

Thanks to you all for helping with this. 1audion, when I returned to the BIOS to check the settings, the Graphics Aperture Size was set to 248. I changed it to 64 Mb and WOW, the system boots under 2 mins. Now, that's more like it.